Samsung Galaxy S3 unveiled: Is this the phone that will finally topple Apple?

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On stage at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, Samsung has unveiled the next king of the Galaxy line of smartphones: the Samsung Galaxy S3. Curiously, despite the fever pitch expectations, the Galaxy S3 isn’t all that remarkable — at least hardware-wise. The star of the show was a whole array of new software applications, such as AllShare (which is very similar to Apple’s AirPlay), S Beam, Buddy Photo Share, and S Voice (which is very, very similar to Siri). The Galaxy S3 will be released in Europe and Asia on May 29, and the US in June.

Appearance-wise, with an attractive ceramic blue backplate, the Galaxy S3 is definitely a bit of a departure from Samsung’s characteristic dull black and gray designs — but the S3 certainly isn’t as distinctive or visually appealing as the iPhone 4. Under the hood, as expected, there’s either a quad-core Exynos 4412 clocked at 1.5GHz (which is only for 3G markets, and will probably never be available in the US), or a dual-core Snapdragon S4 clocked at 1.5GHz. We will publish a hands-on review, with the full hardware and software specs, later today.

The bigger story with the Galaxy S3, though, is that it will probably be the phone that finally topples Apple’s lead in the US smartphone market. Worldwide, on the back of the S1, S2, and a slew of other popular handsets, Samsung is by far the largest smartphone and dumbphone vendor. In the US, however, Apple has held the majority share of the market ever since the release of the first iPhone in 2007. Just this morning, market research group NPD published data that shows Samsung’s US smartphone market share rising by 140% in the last year; as of today, Samsung has a 24% share of the US smartphone market, up from just 10% this time last year. Apple, by comparison, has 29% of the market.

If the Galaxy S3 is as successful as its forebears, there’s no reason that Samsung’s massive growth spike won’t continue. Come Christmas, Apple might have to come to terms with no longer being the front runner — a shake-up that might have all sorts of odd repercussions. Of course, this is assuming that the Samsung Galaxy S3 is actually released in the US in a timely fashion. We’re told that carriers don’t want a repeat of the Galaxy S2 snafu, so here’s hoping.

Back to reality: I’m still at the Samsung Unpacked event in London. I’m surrounded by booth babes and hordes of white and blue Galaxy S3s. I don’t know why I’m still typing — it’s time to play with them!

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Tumultus

Maybe it is just me but headlines (or text for that matter) such as “Is this the phone that will finally topple Apple?” just make me not to want to read any further.

There is no “topple Apple” in the real world. People usually stick with what works for them. Most likely, I see many Android users upgrading to this one from older devices but I doubt that Apple users just will jump ship and abandom their investments. It isn’t just about getting a new phone with cool features that will make my old device look like a toy! Down here on earth, we have to put up with legacy problems, such as accessories and software purchases on the marketplace.

It is very likely that most i-Users will wait for their own next big thing: the iPhone 5.

James Jung

In my opinion, most of the iPhone users will stick to Apple. But, that’s a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential number of new smartphone users. Like Apple was thrashed by Microsoft in PC battle, it will be thrashed by Samsung in smartphone battle. It’s because open competition is a better way for improving things. iOS is a kind of closed world compared to Android. Apple is making the same mistake as before.

larrydev

I doubt you can honestly say “Apple is making the same mistake as before”. Apple right now is a very, very successful company with many loyal customers worldwide. By almost any measure of success as a company they are a success. Perhaps participating in a race to the bottom in device cost is not the only way to measure success.

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